One trouble spot that hurt Samsung was in its chipmaking business. There was a dip in mobile demand for NAND flash storage and DRAM memory for mobile devices, even in the face strong demand from cloud data centers and stabilizing PC demand. Operating profit of the consumer electronics (CE) unit, which includes flat panel TVs and appliances, also dropped, but this was less substantial given it isn't typically a highly profitable niche for Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung's biggest gains were in the mobile devices market. After facing slowing sales late last year, Samsung appeared to recapture momentum posting an 18 percent rise in operating proft over Q1 2013. While mobile only accounts for roughly three-fifths (~60 percent) of Samsung's mobile revenue, it earns 75.7 percent of the profit.

While sales of archrival Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad fell to 16.35m units, Samsung tablet sales reached new highs, moving a record 13 million units in the quarter, according toSam Mobile. Given Samsung's strong growth and Apple's declining iPad sales, Samsung looks poised to potentially become the first company to wrest the tablet sales crown from Apple since the iPad launched in 2010.

Samsung's sold an estimated 90m smartphones, versus 43.7m iPhones sold by Apple. Samsung does not release precise sales data, so analysts are forced to resort to tracking and analytics to make estimates of sales, so take those numbers with a grain of salt.

Samsung is predicting that demand for mobile NAND and DRAM should jump back up in H2, and that sales of LTE-equipped devices across multiple segments will jump when users of the world's largest smartphone market -- China -- begins upgrading to the 4G wireless standard.

OLED shipments are also expected to see gains. Samsung already saw a healthy rise in large flat panel TV displays in Q1; up 95 percent on a year to year basis. Samsung says a major driver of sales of flat panels came from soccer enthusiasts looking to get a crisp picture for this year's World Cup soccer championship.